Thursday, December 24, 2015

Just like 2009 -- It's All About the Baby

Six years ago I blogged a blog entry called "This Year, It's all about the baby". I remember that post, and that year, because it struck me that every single Christmas it should be about the baby.

Right now, that baby from 2009 is turning 6.

She is adorable. Compliant, kind, helpful, generally happy, and very affectionate and loving. She is a super great kid. She now has a baby brother

and she has three male cousins that were born in between her and her brother.

And again this Christmas, at this very moment our daughter-in-law is at the doctor finding out if she and Kyle's identical twin daughters will be born today or if they are safe to stay inside her for a few more days.

And I'm struck that combined with our move, this Christmas, again, is about the babies about to be born into our family. But more importantly it is about THE baby, Jesus, born to deliver all of us. It's about anticipation, the joy of advent, the looking forward to the birth of new life. It's not about stuff.

We never got around to getting a tree. We did manage to buy presents, but they are not creative. There are no Christmas decorations up and from looking around you can't tell that today is different than every other day.

But these words keep ringing through my ears as I anticipate the arrival of my children and grandchildren, the church services tonight, time with my mom, and all the things that are the true meaning of Christmas

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons. It came without tags.
It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled
'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought,
doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

It's a whole lot more. It's about the baby. It's about family. It's about belonging.

And you know that I wouldn't be me, if I didn't point out that there are many kids across the country tonight who will go to bed surrounded by strangers in shelter care, foster parents they are just getting to know, or in a group home. They know they don't "belong" anywhere.

It is my prayer as it is every year, that by next Christmas many more children will have a home and a place to belong.